Barbados Ecodive trip report

[tarheeldiver]

My wife and I traveled to Barbados on Oct. 14th for 8 days and here is my little report. We arrived on Sunday and just explored the Christ Church area on Monday and laid on the beach. First dives on Tuesday with Andrew Weston at Ecodive, Andrew picked us up early Tuesday and went to the shop to fill out paperwork and checkout our equipment. Andrew's boat is a perfect size for the 6 diver max he takes. We dove with Andrew and Mikey for 5 days of 2 tank dives. After Andrew knows your ability he lets you dive your profile and we had some really long dives. The dives were a great mix of wreck and reef dives. Fish life was excellent and viz was good on almost all dives. We saw turtles on all but 2 dives and multiple ones on most dives. During the week we saw a seahorse and frogfish and many other reef fish on the dives. Now I must admit before arriving in Barbados I did not have high expectations for the diving or the island in general(not sure why), but I was very wrong on both counts. The diving was wonderful and the island even better! I have dove in a lot of Caribbean islands and Hawaii and this is definitely in my top 5 trips. The people of the island were probably the most friendly I have ever met. Andrew went out of his way to make sure we had a great time giving us island tours each day on the way back to our room. I will definitely return to Barbados and dive with Andrew at Ecodive. I arrived a tourist but when I left I felt like a local. Thanks Andrew and everyone we met for some great memories!!

 

[trippingpara]

Tarheeldiver, I completely second your comments about Andrew Western and Ecodive. My wife and I are newly certified and we dove with Andrew and Mikey. He gave a great pre-dive briefing and took the time to ensure that we were all good with our equipment (rental gear) and completely understood the dive profile. During the dive, Andrew let you dive your profile yet remained vigilent over us without doting. He got just excited as we did pointing out various reef dwellers and other life around the wrecks in Carlisle Bay and on the reefs off the old fort. I hear a lot of divers knock Barbados for its diving when compared to other locations in the Caribbean. I'm far too new of a diver to be able to compare them personally, but I can say that I was extremely pleased not only with Andrew and Ecodive but with the dives themselves. Definitely a place you want to keep on your "to dive" list!